HOME

 

Russell Hampshire Interview

Russell Hampshire, former owner of VCA, calls me back Thursday morning, 12/30/04.

Luke: "Tell me when you first met Jim Holliday."

Russell: "It was 20-something odd years ago. He went to work in [VCA's] mail-order company [around 1980]. He was talking to customers. It was just a place to hang out.

"I thought he was very knowledgeable about the industry and the limited amount of product available at the time."

Luke: "How did he come to direct for you?"

Russell: "We were making movies and he presented a script and we liked it and we said, ok, you can direct. He came through one of the art directors in the company."

Luke: "You found his product sold well?"

Russell: "He had his niche for putting together product that had a lot of girls in it. Your average movie had four, five or six girls. His movies had 10, 20 girls in it."

Luke: "Did you watch his movies and get his trivia references?"

Russell: "I watched his movies. I didn't get into the trivia. His movies didn't have a lot of plot, just a lot of girls having a good time. I didn't figure out his trivia."

Luke: "I heard a story that he had some kind of breakdown on a set and you had to intervene."

Russell: "He got real sick. He had to go to the hospital. He didn't want to go."

Luke: "Was this about four years ago?"

Russell: "I can't remember. I'm getting Alzheimer's Disease. Somebody called me and said, you have to do something about Jim. He's real sick and he's a trooper and he doesn't want to get himself checked out.

"We went down there and put the shoot on hold while he went to the doctor who gave him something to make him feel better."

Luke: "I've read allegations on various posting boards that VCA and Jim did not want to shoot interracial product."

Russell: "I don't know anything about that. I was never concerned with that. It never crossed my mind."

Luke: "It sounded like you and Jim became good friends over the years."

Russell: "Umm, we were friends. He's a nice guy. A good filmmaker. I liked him."

Luke: "I'd hear stories that you guys would kick back and tell stories for hours."

Russell: "No. Jim would like to sit there and talk about the old days but I didn't have time for that."

Luke: "When did you last talk to Jim?"

Russell: "It was quite a while ago. It was four or five months ago. I was shocked to hear this happened. He is sorely missed."

Luke: "I hear the transition to the new ownership [of VCA] was difficult for Jim."

Russell: "I don't know."

Luke: "He didn't talk to you about that?"

Russell: "No."

Luke: "What do you remember about your last conversations with Jim?"

Russell: "He was asking me a question. Did I remember this? Truthfully, I don't remember what it was about. All I know is that he was a great historian and the industry will miss him and his trivia."

Luke: "Did Jim's sales figures justify his budgets?"

Russell: "Yes. People like to see girls and he made films with lots of girls. It was fairly simple."

Luke: "What kind of budgets did he work with?"

Russell: "He'd make films for $100,000. Sometimes $120,000. Anywhere from $35,000 on up."

Luke: "Was he easy to work with? Was he honest?"

Russell: "To the best of my knowledge. How many times can you get 20 girls to work in one film? There had to be something there that he had that made these people work together. I never had a problem with him. He was easy to work with. His shoots were always organized.

"I didn't go to shoots that often but from what I understand he was one of the few guys who didn't work late. His shooting schedule was bang, bang, bang."

Luke: "I heard from Bill Margold that nobody in the industry knew where Jim lived. Did you know where Jim lived?"

Russell: "He lived in some apartment. That's all I know. I don't know where most of the people that did films for me worked."

Luke: "Did you come up with the idea of pairing Rob Spallone with Jim as his production manager?"

Russell: "Yes, I suggested it. Rob was a good nuts-and-bolts guy. When you pair him with a freewill thinker like Jim, you put together a project. Some of them were complicated."

Luke: "So, is there anything you miss about owning a big company?"

Russell: "I like being retired. I put 25-years in. I'm getting old. I'm not in the best of health. I want to live peacefully in my last few years."

Many years ago, Russell said he might tell me a lot of scoop about his career when he had cashed out of the business.

Luke: "Do you have any interest in telling the story of your career?"

Russell: "No. Nothing I want to say. I go to the grave with all my stories. No one will ever know. It would be a great masterpiece but I go to the grave with my story. Like anybody else's story, I happened to be at the right place at the right time and I worked hard."

Luke: "How's your health?"

Russell: "I'm hanging around. I had a [minor] heart attack [two years ago]. I've got arthritis.

"I'm still out in the garden. Not as much. The body doesn't work as well as it used to. It hurts when you get old."

Luke: "But you're still able to play 18-holes of golf."

Russell: "Yes. Just so long as I can ride in the cart. I can't walk it."

Luke: "Who do you keep up with in the industry?"

Russell: "Nobody."

Luke: "Are you content?"

Russell: "I'm fine. I'm happy. I wish you a happy holiday season."

Luke: "You've accomplished what you wanted to in your career?"

Russell: "I guess so."

Luke: "No burning..."

Russell: "No big burning desires..."

Luke: "Nothing eating you at night?"

Russell: "No. Not like you."

Luke: "I'm perpetually dissatisfied."

Russell: "You're still young. You're a puppy. I've got 20 years on you.

"I just wish everybody the best of luck in the world."

XXX writes: "Why didn't you ask Russ about the shotgun incident? It happened decades ago. It had to do with collecting money."

1/11/05

Discontent At VCA, Mark Hamilton Fired From LFP

I'm hearing the nine remaining employees at VCA who've lasted from the days when Russell Hampshire owned the company are unhappy with LFP's strict corporate ways. I hear Russell has been unhappy with the sale to LFP from day one of the sale. (I have not spoken to Russ about this but my sources are solid.)

I ran this by Mark Hamilton at LFP and got this reply Monday 5:40am:

As a general observation, there will always be a few challenges when one company acquires another, and in any acquisition between two differently-operated companies there will be some employees who preferred the previous structure and policies. We've actually been really impressed with the way the vast majority of VCA's employees have adapted to the change of ownership. In fact, LFP was fortunate to inherit so many hard-working, dedicated employees, and it's clear Russ was a really good judge of talent.

Finally, regarding your question about PR. Hustler and VCA are such diverse brands, we do treat them separately, but there are a few areas (publicity mailings, e-mailers, press releases, media requests etc) where it makes sense to serve both companies under one department. However, in areas such as creative, production, branding etc, we've taken great care to keep VCA and Hustler separate.

I hear the LFP rules mean that employees have to show by a set time in the morning, say 9am, and take regulated breaks of no more than ten-minutes circa 11am and 3pm. Russ ran a porn company. LFP runs VCA like any other business. LFP requires many of its employees to wear business attire (slacks, long-sleeved shirts and ties for women and fluffy lacy pink teddies for men).

Tuesday night update: I hear Mark Hamilton, along with Jim Kohls, has been fired from LFP. Three other people were fired too. I hear security guards walked them out.

I email Mark. He says, at 8:26pm, that he can't reply to my questions about this.